Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has finally decided to retire from international cricket after he plays in the Perth Test. Ponting, who on Thursday decided to end his glittering Test match career, is Australia's all-time leading Test batsman besides being the most successful skipper as well. Nicknamed as 'Punter', Ponting will be 38 next month and accepts that age has caught up with him. He fared terribly in his last three outings against Proteas resulting in recent draws in Brisbane and Adelaide Oval.
There were rising voices for the 167-Test veteran to hang up his boots before the Friday's series decider starts in Perth, which will be his final Test.
Ponting will appear in style at the WACA to equal Steve Waugh's record of 168 Test matches, which are maximum in the history of Australian cricket.
The Tasmanian, who got 41 centuries to his credit, with only Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar scoring more, admitted that he is well aware that the time had come.
"Over the last couple of weeks my level of performance hasn't been good enough," he maintained.
"My passion and love for the game hasn't changed but at the end of the day (the decision) was based on my results.
"I'm glad I have got the opportunity to finish on my terms."
Ponting has led Australia to maximum Test victories as captain with 48 than any other skipper. Also, he has a magnificent success rate of nearly 72 percent as the nation's one-day captain, emerging victories in 164 of his 228 matches.
He had already called quits regarding his captaincy of the Test and one-day team in March last year, but remained as a player in both the formats.
Even after captaining the Oz team in over 300 Test and one-day matches in the post Steve Waugh era, his career-defining innings were blighted by three Ashes series losses as captain.
Termed as ‘Punter’ by Shane Warne for his interest for a bet (punt) on the greyhounds, Ponting has piled 13,366 runs in 167 Tests at a healthy average of 52.21, and 13,704 runs in 375 one-day internationals on an overall.
As a skipper he came across a painful transition in Australian cricket in the wake of numerous high-profile retirements, consisting of Warne, Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Glenn McGrath, Michael Slater, Adam Gilchrist, and Jason Gillespie.
Even after having such greats in the ranks, Ponting, as skipper, lost the 2005 Ashes in England rather tamely.
That last failure was seriously contemplated back in Australia -- it was their first Ashes loss at home for 24 years and continued with a series of defeats by Ponting-led sides.
Australia lost a home series against South Africa for the first time ever in 2008/09 and a two-match series in India in 2010 as well.
Ponting began his career by making his state debut at 17, the youngest player to represent Tasmania in the domestic Sheffield Shield competition, before making his international one-day debut aged 20 in 1995. There has been no looking back for him since then.
